Reverse Engineering in Communication Protocol Design

Kenji OTOMO
Noriyasu ARAKAWA
Yutaka HIRAKAWA

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications   Vol.E79-B    No.6    pp.842-848
Publication Date: 1996/06/25
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: PAPER
Category: Communication Software
Keyword: 
communications software,  message sequence chart,  reverse engineering,  reachability analysis,  specification,  

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Summary: 
This paper discusses how to derive message sequence charts (MSCs) from a set of state transition descriptions. Recently, MSC notation has received much attention in the communications software field because it graphically shows system global behavior, So MSC handling techniques are being widely studied. These studies have recommended the design a system by a set of formal MSCs in the early stages of development and then to convert them into state transition descriptions. However, it is difficult to apply those results to existing communications software products. This is because these systems are designed based on state transition descriptions and there are no formal MSCs for them. In this paper, we propose a method of deriving MSCs based on optimized reachability analysis. This method generates MCSs that avoid state explosion. A case study using Q.931 protocol shows the feasibility of this method.